- So this is a Sony a6400
and I would consider this to be a really solid camera
to make YouTube videos with.
And this is a RED camera which is a solid option
for shooting TV shows or movies like "Stranger Things"
or that movie "Yesterday" that I just saw,
about the Beatles, all shot on RED.
This is somewhat affordable and you could get it
Amazon Prime to your house
and it'll show up at your door tomorrow.
This, no.
This requires a team of trained professionals
to handle properly.
And this on the other hand,
you just turn on and look for that red button.
Oh, there it is.
And we're recording.
So the question, is how good is this Sony a6400
compared to a proper cinema camera that shoots big movies?
So let's see if you can spot which ones which.
(upbeat music)
So what do you guys think?
Do you guys know?
Hit that poll right there,
just do it right now
and tell me which one you think was the RED camera.
Was it the one on the left?
The one on the right?
And no changing answers after I tell you the answer, okay?
That's cheating and there's there's no prize
for getting it right or anything.
I mean, I'll think you're an idiot forever
but who cares.
Do you dig it?
All right.
So the answer is the RED camera was the camera on the right
and the a6400 was the camera on the left.
I'm so curious to see how many of you guys got it right.
Looking back at the footage,
I think the most obvious thing is in the colors.
I mean the Sony looks kind of like a camcorder-ish
and the RED camera looks filmic and very organic.
And one of the things I really like about RED cameras
is that no matter if you're in the sun
or you're in the shade, it all generally looks good.
I really like how the Sony looks under the sun,
but in unideal lighting conditions it just looks, ugh.
I think the sharpness this looks really great
out of the Sony, but sometimes you can see
that it does tend to over sharpen a little bit
and it looks a little less natural.
But another big factor that separates these two
is the dynamic range.
The RED keeps everything in nice perfect detail,
where the a6400 might have some harsher highlight roll offs
and might blow out on the whites.
And that becomes more and more obvious
when you look at skin tones that are lit or in the sky,
where the blue fades gradually on the RED.
Opposed to a harsher transition to the white on the Sony.
And when you compare low-light capabilities,
I mean, Sony's always been really good
at pushing their limits to get exposure
in really really dark places,
but the downside is that, I do notice that,
the image starts to get a little mushy
is how I would describe it.
And I think that's one of the side effects
of noise reduction,
is that everything looks a little bit blurry,
nothing looks as sharp or well lit.
This RED on the other hand still looks fairly sharp,
but it does introduce a lot of grain as you go up.
Now there is the RED Gemini
which is designed to get really good low-light,
so let me know in the comments
if you wanna see a test with that.
But that's kind of the trade-off,
with the RED you still maintain that sharpness
but you get a lot of grain.
On the a6400 you don't get as much grain
but everything comes a little bit blurry.
But that was both of these cameras
out of their default settings,
but what are somethings we can do to customize this camera
and make it look as close as we can to this.
Well, step one, we gotta look at different color profiles
because with the standard picture profile
it is just so limiting
of what this camera is actually capable off.
But the question is which picture profile
should we shoot on?
'Cause there's so many options on here.
So let's go test that some other color profiles.
(upbeat music)
Check this out we're in Toronto.
- Gene, you said it wrong man.
It's not Toronto,
- Toronto. - it's Toronto.
- Toronto. - Come on.
- But then look,
there's a T right there. - No, no, no, no.
- What color profile do you shoot on
when you're shooting on the a6400?
- If I shoot Sony, I go S-Log 2.
- S-Log 2. - What do you shoot?
- I've been shooting in HLG for the most part,
- Really? - but I'm gonna do
a little bit more S-Log 2.
The downsides of S-Log 2 is that you have the minimum ISO
500, at least on this camera. - Yeah.
- So you have to have an ND filter and also the auto focus.
You told me about the S-Log 2 focus a while ago,
I didn't believe you, but now I do.
- So do you think it's worse in S-Log 2?
- Yeah.
- Okay, yeah. - You notice that too right?
- That's what I've always thought or that was my theory,
'cause a lot of people are always like,
"I don't have any issues with my Sony."
But I've had tons of issues with Sony auto focus.
That was my explanation for that it that,
it must be because I'm tuning in S-Log 2
and they are not shooting
in S-Log 2. - Yeah okay,
In HLG it's totally fine
S-Log 2 auto focus for some weird reason, it's a lot worse.
- I guess there's just less contrast
that it's using for the auto focus or something?
- You would think it would be smart enough
to avoid looking at the-- - To avoid looking of it.
- Yeah, just like. - Exactly.
- I don't know, or I at least look at a version
with a LUT or something. - You would think,
but it doesn't always work
like that, right? - Okay, so.
Those are the two downsides of S-Log.
Dude this is how you know you're in Canada.
That sign says "Please walk on the grass."
You never see that.
- Frolic in the grass. (Potato Jet laughs)
- So log 2 is a solid option, Matti uses it
and the OG Philip Bloom uses it.
Packs on a ton of flexibility and dynamic range
for grading and it's been around for a long time.
I used to use S-Log 2 when I was shooting
on the FS700 years ago.
But me personally because of some of those limitations,
like the bad auto focus on here, I would skip the S-Log 2.
And then there's S-Log 3,
which is probably the most powerful
in terms of dynamic range and flexibility,
but I would not touch it on this camera
because you really need a much beefier codec
to work S-Log 3 properly.
But out of all the ones I've tried out so far,
I would have to say HLG is probably my favorite,
which is Hybrid Log Gamma
and I feel like it's a pretty good balance
of having the convenience of having it easy to grade.
All you gotta do is just boost the contrast a little bit
and you're pretty much there.
And it doesn't have those auto focus issues
like S-Log 2 does and it's going to give you a lot more
performance than that standard no picture profile on here.
Now there's HLG 1, 2 and 3,
and they all grade pretty similarly.
So you could actually use the same LUT to grade them all.
Now HLG 1 is the one that has the least amount of noise,
so if you're gonna film in low light
it kind of makes sense to use that,
but you are gonna miss out on some of that dynamic range.
And then there's HLG 3 which has the most dynamic range,
but also the most amount of noise comes with it.
So then there's HLG 2, which is right there in the middle.
That's where I would be a majority of the time,
on HLG 2 and I would occasionally switch to 1 or 3
in certain circumstances.
Once you pick out your HLG
you get to select your color mode from 709 or BT2020.
When you put it on 709
and you do a very, very simple grade to it,
I found that that is the profile closest to the RED camera,
just out of the camera.
And I finally finished my LUT pack for this camera.
So there's a set of LUTs in there for no picture profile,
as well as HLG and 709 and BT2020.
And also there's a lot in there for S-Log 2.
And just like the LUT pack that I made for the Canon EOS R,
it's not like super creative LUTs,
it's not like you apply the LUT and you go,
"Whoa, it looks so different!"
The goal is really to take some of the pockets of colors
that I don't really like and trying to funnel it towards
what a cinema camera looks like.
So let me just try to upgrade this a little bit more,
I'm gonna throw on a bigger lens
and throw on my LUT and let's see how close
this can look to this now.
(upbeat music)
So what'd you guys think?
Not bad for a camera that costs less than
this monitor alone, right?
I think the moral of today's video is that
you should totally go and buy my LUTs.
Link in description.
Anyways let's wrap this up by reading a few comments
from my last video, which was all about the ZHIYUN M2,
which is a tiny little gimbal that's $269
and it's designed for cameras like this point and shot
or even this Sony a6400,
as long as you got a small lens on here.
Top comment was from Matti Haapoja,
"Thanks for coming to visit."
Thank You Matti for having me,
I had so much fun in Toronto.
Notice how I said it correctly,
I guess the locals don't pronounce the T.
Toronto not Toronto.
"If I ever see Potato Jet with the backpack
"that has gear sticking out, I'm gonna do a snatch and run.
"I could definitely out run imo-san!"
Yeah, actually I do hang a lot of gear off my backpack,
but everything's always strapped in
with a couple of extra buckles.
And some guy while we're in Toronto,
try to grab my tripod and I tried to shake it off
while we're eating ice cream.
"Geez, the color of the footage of an a6400 is damn nice,
"is that HLG 2?"
It is, with my LUTs. (laughs)
Link description.
I already said that, I'm repeating myself.
I think that's a thing right?
You're supposed to tell people to do it three times
before they actually go do it.
"Can't wait for your review on the Canon G7 X Mark III
"and the G5 X Mark II.
"No 24 frames per second."
Oh yeah, that is coming.
I do have the camera right here.
So here's how the footage looks like from the G7 X Mark III
and I still have a lot more testing to do with this camera
before the video, but I'm also noticing the auto focus
seems to be kinda slow.
How long will you take to focus on me?
Getting there.
Come on.
There we go.
Yeah, I feel like the auto focus has gotten slower,
but the picture quality looks nice.
But review coming, for sure, soon.
"I was watching a porn and then I paused
"because of this notification video.
"It better be good."
"Your videos are dangerous for me financially."
That's my goal, is to take all of your money.
Don't forget to buy my LUTs.
(relaxed music)